A tribute to one of the world's greatest comedy teams

books:

	• The Three Stooges Scrapbook Joan Howard-Maurer, Jeff Lenburg, ... Citadel, 2000 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Really good resource with some minor shortcomings

This isn't your run-of-the-mill biography but rather, as the title implies, a scrapbook. There are brief biographical profiles of all 6 of the Stooges, along with Ted Healy, without whom they never would have been. There's also a chapter giving a historical overview of their career. The real reason for the book comes in the subsequent chapters. There's a lot of great chronological information on Stooges merchandise and off-shoots, particularly in the late Fifties and during the Sixties, when they were heavily being marketed to kids and surprisingly enjoyed their greatest financial success, even though they were really past their creative peak. Some people might feel they sold out by doing things such as recording albums for children and starring in cartoons, but after they were financially taken advantage of by Columbia for 25 years, I don't begrudge them anything they did when they finally were making as much money as they were worth, whether or not they were getting older and had to tone down their antics to please parents. There are also great chapters on impersonators, the boys in comic books, their ever-increasing fan base, the history of their films being shown on television, and tributes paid to them by other comedians who have been influenced by their style. The final section also gives synopses and complete cast and crew lists of all of their shorts and features any of them ever appeared in, as a team, with Ted Healy, or on their own. There's a lot going for this book to highly recommend it.

However, this book was also published in 1981. While most of the basic facts haven't changed, that's still nearly 25 years ago. A lot has happened since, and a revised updated edition really seems in order. It could have an additional chapter addressing, among other things, when and where the Stooges have been shown on television in the years since, why it's so hard to find them on tv now, and how many of their films and shorts are available on DVD and VHS. A number of their supporting cast and crew have also died in the years since this book was published. I also was beyond floored at how many of the Joe Besser-era shorts, in the final section, got so many positive reviews, and how, earlier on, his brief stint in the group was spoken of in positive glowing terms. With all due respect to him as a person and a comedian, and to the authors themselves, that's not how the majority of fans feel! Almost all fans view the 16 shorts they did with him as their worst weakest most embarrassing output, and feel that while his character was very funny in other venues, it wasn't the type of comedic personality that came across as funny when he was cast as a Stooge. The authors could at least have been honest and, without attacking him like a number of fans have, addressed the reasons for this era being their weakest. There were a number of reasons for this; Joe Besser's presence was only one reason. I was also surprised to see so many positive reviews given to a number of the later Shemp-era shorts that relied heavily on recycled footage and, later on, careful shots of the back of Joe Palma's head. Most fans also don't have very positive things to say about these shorts. Still, all in all, this is a pretty good resource volume for someone looking for something beyond the average biography.

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The BEST Three Stooges Reference Book

After 20 years in print, this 1983 book remains the best book for Three Stooges fans! If you want to know all about the Stooges themselves, the team's history, the films, the records, the comic books, 50 years of collectibles & memorabilia, and so much more...

Twenty years of subsequent Stooges research has turned up some discrepancies, but overall this book is the definitive reference tool. Authors Joan Howard, who is Moe's daughter, and the Lenburg brothers created a tome that deserves an updated printing for the 2000's! (Although the current management of C3 will probably not allow that to happen.)

Since SCRAPBOOK's publication, it has been worthily joined by:
- THE COMPLETE THREE STOOGES by Jon Solomon, a detailed and worthy companion that analyses each Three Stooges film from 1930 - 1970
- Moe Howard's own autobiography, MOE HOWARD AND THE THREE STOOGES (1976) *
- And, Joan Howard's CURLY: BIOGRAPHY OF THE SUPERSTOOGE (1985) *

* Out of print, but used copies are readily available from Amazon, other online retailers, and online auction sites

... This book and the aforemtioned companions combine to make the best reference tools for any Three Stooges fan!

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A tribute to one of the world's greatest comedy teams

One of the co-authors of this book is Joan Howard Maurer,daughter of the late Moe Howard(1897-1975). This book has everything there is to know about the legandary Three Stooges. First,there's a historical overview which tells about the origin of the team and short biographies of all six Stooges named Moe,Larry Fine,Moe's brothers Curly and Shemp,Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita. The Stooges have made 190 short subject comedies for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1957. The first 97 featured Curly,the most popular third Stooge which were filmed between 1934 and 1946. The next 77 featured Shemp,who replaced Curly since Curly's terminal illness forced him to quit the team. Those were filmed between 1946 and 1955. After Shemp died in 1955,Joe Besser replaced him,filming the last 16 comedies between 1956 and '57. Then Besser's wife became ill and he was unwilling to leave her. So Joseph Wardell aka Curly Joe DeRita(his head was shaved like Curly Howard's) joined the team in '58 and he,Moe and Larry filmed a few movies and made a few cameo appearances in others. The Stooges "died" in 1970 after Larry suffered a paralyzing stroke confining him to a wheelchair until his death in 1975. He died January 24 that year and Moe's death followed May 4 the same year. During Wardell's tenure,the Stooges made some television cartoons bearing their likenesses. Curly died in 1952 at age 48. His heavy drinking brought on his illness. Shemp died of a massive heart attack while riding a taxicab after attending a boxing match. He was 60. Besser died in 1988 at age 80 and Wardell died 5 years later at age 83. This book also contains a filmography of all Three Stooges films with brief synopses. Some of them give filming dates. I've been a Three Stooges fan for over two decades and this book is a must for all Stooge fans.

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The best Stooges resource book

This is a fun reference book that gets into all areas of Stooge facts. Biographies of all, a history of the group, and much more . There's a fun review of Stooges merchandise and memoriobilia available that is incmplete in that many products have become available since publication. The best feature of the book, in my opinion, is the complete lsiting of everything the Stooges appeared in. They gave a complete summary, review, cast list, release date, and time for every short, feature, and appearance the Stooges ever made. They also give information about which shorts are remakes and what short they're remaking. This information is invaluable to anyone who is collecting the Stooge films. One intersting tidbit and warning is that the original times of all the movies are listed and sometimes when commercial tv stations play them, they may cut 2, 3, or even occasionally 5 minutes off of the original running time.
This is the must have refrence book for the serious and casual fan of the Stooges.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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